Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

Amphetamines: it’s what killed a bunch of stars in the late fifties and early sixties. The doctors would prescribe “vitamin” shots and then more “vitamins” to sleep at night. Eventually, there was an overdose. Most of the rich and famous didn’t even know they were addicted because they were told that the shots were “all natural vitamins.”

Welcome to the present, where you can die like a movie star.

• Miami Herald – Danger Lurks in Popular Pills for Dieters – by John Dorschner

It looks like there is a popular pill in the Florida area that is being brought over from Brazil. It is advertised as an “all-natural” herbal weight loss medication. Yellow pills in the morning and orange pills in the night. When taken to an independent lab, the analysis showed that the yellow pills contained amphetamines and the orange pills contained tranquilizers and generic Prozac.

This is the best quote from the article:

“Any product that says you can lose 20 or 30 pounds a month does not have legitimate ingredients, or they’re lying.”

Remember, you already have everything you need to lose weight. Don’t let companies profit by lying to you and risking your life and livelihood.

Via: Diet Blog – Brazilian Diet Pills Causing Stir

Yahoo has a healthy eating weblog. Last week, she wrote an entry about ethnic foods and received this sarcastic comment:

so basically, watch out for the stuff that tastes good…thanks!
Posted by oneluv

I saw the comment and looked at it unbelievingly. The entry had recommended staying away from tempura fried Japanese dishes and phyllo pastry in Greek dishes. All the greasy and oily stuff that makes the food too rich to eat. Hurts my stomach, too. And then I realized it had happened to me…

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Here are the easy and pat answers that you will find everywhere:

• Don’t buy it until the day of Halloween and give the rest of your bowl to the last kid.

• Buy Halloween candy that you don’t like.

• Don’t buy it period and give out small toys or Halloween pencils instead of treats. The kids don’t need the extra sugar anyway.

• Buy Halloween candy that is really low in calories so that if you DO binge, it won’t hurt you that much.

If you wanted easy and pat answers, you wouldn’t have cancelled your emails from Hungry Girl.

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Although fun-size candy bars are available all year long, you can’t beat the selection at Halloween time. My favorite candy to binge on was the bite-size Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. I still keep a bag of these in a cupboard so that I always know that I have my favorites close by. I don’t have to actually eat them to feel better. Just knowing that they are in my house is a comfort and keeps me from bingeing. These little candy bars, however, can be a double-edged sword.

They Are a Plague:

• It is easy to eat several of these candy bars in a sitting.

• They come in large packages with a total of more calories than a single candy bar.

• They come in multi-packs with several different candy bars in one package, which can cause further bingeing. When you’re sick of one type, you’re tempted move on to the next.

They Are a Godsend

• The individual bars are small, with calories between 50 and 120 apiece.

• You can have a taste of your favorite candy without risking a lot of calories.

• You can plan to have your favorite candy EVERY day with these little bars, meaning that you never have to feel deprived ever again.

One note of caution: It’s not a good idea to “stock up” during the Halloween season. I never knew this before I started eating healthy, but it’s possible for candy to go bad. After months of lying untouched in my cupboard, I decided to have a taste of my favorite only to find it gray and rotting. Before that, I had never thrown away a bag of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. They had always disappeared within hours of purchase. I discarded the bag and wrote the words “Reese’s PB Cups” on the grocery list. I felt such a strange sense of accomplishment because I had been able to keep my favorite candy in the house long enough for it to rot. It was a new first for me.

You feel stuck. You’re stuck at the weight that you have been at for so long that you are starting to think that you will never be able to weigh any less. It’s not that bad. You can run and play. You can eat healthy food and you don’t think that your health is affected THAT much. You’re better than that 500 pound man you saw on television a couple of months ago, right?

But you want more. You want to be thin. You want people to look at you instead of look through you. You’re sick of that extra flab on your body, but you feel like there is nothing you can do to escape it. Guess what, you’re wrong. You’re not stuck and here is an article from Steve Pavlina that will help you break free from the black hole you’ve found yourself in.

• Steve Pavlina – You Need People

When I was a kid, tuna fish was eaten one way: with lots of mayo on white bread. It was one of the first things that I could make on my own and I enjoyed the autonomy of being able to make my own dinner if I had to. I used to make it with so much mayonnaise that it would be slimy and slick. I haven’t eaten fish that way for years now and I don’t really miss it.

Now, I eat tuna fish in many more dishes and all more healthy than that old tuna fish sandwich:

• Tuna Fish Sandwich: I still like a tuna fish sandwich, but I usually skip the mayo and put the tuna right on the bread without mayonnaise. Sometimes I mix in a little dill relish. Other times, I include a slice of cheese and grill the sandwich with a little Pam.

• Tuna on Triscuit Crackers: I like this for a good snack. When I’m feeling tired in the afternoon, a small serving of tuna fish (100 calories worth) on 7 Triscuit crackers fills me up and gets me going again. The Olive Oil and Rosemary flavor Triscuits are particularly good with this.

• Tuna Helper: I know it’s full of preservatives and is a highly processed food, but as highly processed foods go, Tuna Helper is pretty healthy. You usually can have a serving for about 250 to 300 calories. If you bulk it up with frozen veggies, it’s a huge serving.

• Tuna Salad: Just a small amount of tuna fish can really change the flavor of your boring green salad. I usually add a 100-calorie serving and a little lemon juice. I don’t even need salad dressing.

• Alone in the can: Sometimes I need a protein fix. When I’ve had too much sugar and my hands are shaking as I come down, I can eat a couple of bites of tuna fish for an easy protein boost. Sometimes I have a whole can for a meal when I’m busy and in a hurry. This is really easy if you’re on the run. You can get the tuna in packets, a fork from the deli and you have a quick meal from the grocery within seconds.

For more ideas, here are a list of tuna recipes from FoodFit.com. They have all the nutrition facts, so you know exactly how to plan them into your healthy eating:

• FoodFit.com – Tuna Recipes

For those of you of the Jewish Faith, Yom Kippur starts at sundown tonight. Traditional practice includes fasting from sundown tonight until sundown tomorrow. Sexual activity and bathing during those hours is also refrained from. White is worn during this time.

Yom Kippur is a representation of death. For one day, believers encounter death in a very real form. All earthly pleasures are denied and suddenly the realization that we are not going to live forever is very clear in our minds. Enjoy today, for tomorrow we may die.

You don’t need to be Jewish to follow the practice of Yom Kippur. If you are anxious about the upcoming holidays of overindulgence, here is another practice that urges you to live a better life. Since so many of the major religions have a period of fasting at this time of year, it makes one believe that it is something within our physiological makeup that asks for this.

Beliefnet.com – Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement – by Rabbi David Wolpe

I spent so much time running and riding my bike to work that I totally fell out of the dancing game world. I hadn’t even pulled my dance mat out from under the couch for months. Thursday, I casually glanced at the old sites that I used to haunt when I wished I could play instead of work and I was surprised to find that my dreams had come true. Andamiro Entertainment has released Pump It Up for the Xbox.

Pump It Up (PIU) is different from Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) because it has arrows on the corners and a button in the middle. There are times when you have to use your hands in order to push all the arrows at once. Otherwise, they are pretty similar.

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After writing i2Workout Update, I got an email from Mike Curiale. He gave me permission to share his answers to my questions with all of you:

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This week on Biggest Loser, the contestants were tortured with even more ridiculous situations. When they checked the kitchen, they were informed that the food was gone and that they would have to eat at restaurants all week. That sounded like a really good training session to me. Learning to eat healthy at every restaurant in the city is something that everyone who is watching their weight should do.

Unfortunately, they jumped right into Contrived Dilemna Land that pushes things past ridiculous. The contestants were separated and told that whomever drank the most milkshake shots would be exempt from having to eat at the restaurants and they would have a personal chef all week. This resulted in one contestant drinking more than a day’s worth of calories in one sitting in order to win. Are they really trying to help these people? It makes me wonder.

At another point in the week, they took the contestants to The Cheesecake Factory. This is a good way to teach them to eat in moderation because there are times when everyone in your circle of friends wants to gorge on cheesecake. Learning how to indulge softly is helpful in those situations. One of the contestants wasn’t learning how to indulge softly, however. He was sneaking bites of the cheesecake behind his napkin. Jillian caught him and poured salt all over his remaining food.

“You’ve got to change your behavior. You do not need to rely on willpower. Willpower is greatly overrated, and by destroying [the dessert], it will make it incapable for you to submit to temptation.”

Finally! One good piece of useful advice from this program. Take it and run because I’m sure next week they’ll find something demeaning to do to these poor folks.

Via: TVgasm – Biggest Loser: My Milkshake Brings All the Boys to the Yard…